Kimi Raikkonen: “Singapore should be better for us”. Kimi struggled in the race with the balance of the car.

Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen felt disappointed after not being able to take the result he had wanted for the Maranello team at their home race at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday. The 2007 Formula One world champion finished the race in fifth place after losing fourth to Red Bull Racing‘s Daniel Ricciardo, who pulled off a spectacular late move at the first chicane, whilst Kimi’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel managed to capture a third place at the Italian Grand Prix in front of their beloved Tifosi.

Raikkonen felt he struggled in the race with the balance with the car not providing enough grip and pace to keep up with the likes of Vettel and both of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers: “For the whole race I kept struggling with the balance of the car. It never felt like it should have done. On some laps it was getting better, but most of the time we were lacking the grip and the pace.” – Kimi said, as reported by the Italian media.

The Ferrari’s showed a lack of promise after an abysmal wet qualifying session where Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel qualified seventh and eighth but would later push up to the third row when penalties were applied.

The race didn’t get any better for both of the red cars with Raikkonen losing an early race battle with fellow countryman Valtteri Bottas, and whilst Vettel did finish third behind race winner Lewis Hamilton, he was 36 seconds behind at the chequered flag, and Kimi now feels that Ferrari need to improve with power circuits like Monza in order to ensure no repeat of this happens again: “It was not an easy weekend, we were fighting in all conditions, in the dry and even more in the wet. This is something that we have to fix for these kinds of circuit. I am disappointed as the result is not what we wanted. For sure if you take the pure layout of the track it’s not an easy one for us, which is unfortunate at our home Grand Prix.” – the Finnish driver added.

With the Singapore Grand Prix next in two weeks time, a track that promises to suit the Ferrari’s more due to the high temperatures and street track layout, Kimi Raikkonen hopes that the story at Monza does not repeat twice for the prancing horse: “I would be surprised if it’s the same story at the next race, because on paper the race in Singapore should be better for us. Now we have to go there and do our best.”